Penny Marshall is an American film director, actress and producer.
Background
Marshall, Penny was born on October 15, 1943 in Bronx, New York, United States. Daughter of Anthony W. and Marjorie Irene (Ward) Marshall. The sister of Garry Marshall (who wrote for The Dick Van Dyke Show and produced Happy Days) and the ex-wife of Rob Reiner (of All in the Family).
Education
She graduated from Walton High School and attended the University of New Mexico.
Career
Penny Marshall would seem a child of TV even without her years as Laverne (1976-83), with Cindy Williams, in Laverne and Shirley (also produced by Gariy). But she directed several episodes of that hit series, and by the middle 1980s she made her debut on the big screen. She is competent and impersonal—like a TV director—and as such could become a workhorse director for mainstream movies. Awakenings was Hollywood’s idea of a prestige production: there is nothing so respectable as the pathos of the handicapped, or as slick as the way clever tour-de-force acting gets away with being called truthful realism.